Chapter 29 - Out of the Ashes
We hit the wet asphalt outside, rolling across the gravel as the entire front half of the workshop exploded in a roiling ball of fire and black smoke. Sirens wailed in the distance—local fire trucks and police cruisers finally screaming down the coastal highway toward the burning mill.
I held Nora tightly against my chest, coughing violently from the smoke, checking her over frantically.
"Are you okay? Did she hurt you?" I gasped, brushing soot and hair away from her face.
"I'm okay, Daddy... I'm okay," she sobbed, burying her face in my shoulder, her small arms wrapping around my neck with all her might.
Around us, the night lit up in brilliant shades of red and orange as the flames consumed the building, turning years of hard work, sawdust, and memories into ash. But as I sat there on the cold asphalt holding my living, breathing daughter, I realized something profound.
The workshop was gone. The Coronado house was gone. The ghosts of Grace, Vanessa, and Eleanor were burning away in the fire.
Nothing left of the nightmare remained except the two of us.
Within minutes, emergency vehicles flooded the street. Firefighters hooked up hoses, blasting high-pressure streams of water into the roaring inferno, while paramedic teams rushed over with oxygen masks and blankets.
Caleb Price’s black SUV screeched to a halt right behind the fire engines. Caleb jumped out, his face pale and grim, scanning the chaotic scene before spotting us sitting by the curb.
He jogged over, dropping to his knees beside us. "Ethan! Nora! Are you guys alright?"
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"We're alive," I said, handing Nora over gently to a paramedic who wrapped a thermal blanket around her shoulders. I looked up at Caleb, my voice steady and resolute. "Eleanor?"
"She didn't make it out," Caleb said grimly, looking toward the smoldering ruins of the warehouse. "The federal marshals secured the perimeter seconds after the blast. The entire appellate network tied to her accounts has been frozen by the Attorney General. It’s over, Ethan. Really over this time."
